| 1 | Heat oil in a large soup pot. |
| 2 | Stir in the onions, garlic and carrots. |
| 3 | Cover & sweat over low heat for 5 minutes. |
| 4 | Add the chiles and herbs, stir well & continue to cook, covered, for a further 5 minutes. |
| 5 | Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste & kidney beans. |
| 6 | Mix well, ensure that the heat is very low, & cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. |
| 7 | Pour in the stock, season with salt & pepper & bring to a boil. |
| 8 | When at a full rolling boil, let it boil hard for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat & simmer until the beans are tender. |
| 9 | The length of time will vary, depending upon the age of the beans, from 50 minutes, to 2 hours. |
| 10 | When cooked, turn off the heat, stir in the nutritional yeast, if desired & let cool. |
| 11 | once cool, transfer the soup, in batches, to a food processor or blender & blend until very smooth. |
| 12 | Return to a clean pot & gently re-heat. |
| 13 | Serve with good, home-made bread. |
| 14 | It will also work with a good, hearty flat bread, if that"s not too much of a contradiction in terms. |
| 15 | Try a native flat bread, for example. |
| 16 | * i"m experimenting with fresh chiles rather than dry ones, i find the flavour to be intense, but i find that i may be over doing the quantities, so reduce the amount if you prefer less hot food. |
| 17 | If you do not have fresh, a good guideline is to use dried in the following quantities: 1 dried chile gives a mild flavour; 2 give a medium heat; 3 will be hot; then there"s people like me & others who will go up from there, depending upon taste. |
| 18 | The trick is to use only enough chiles so that the other tastes are not masked. |
| 19 | + this is optional. |
| 20 | It"s another area of experimenting. |
| 21 | I find that a little nutritional yeast in pureed foods, or in "cream" sauces, gives added creaminess to dishes. |
| 22 | It is entirely up to the cook. |
| 23 | recipe by mark satterly. |
